Malacañang scouts for a new site
Victor Agustin, Inquirer
THE Fidel Ramos-era plan to transfer Malacañang to Clark Field, north of Manila, has been dusted off by the Arroyo administration in the wake of continuing moves to overthrow Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
According to the grapevine, a team from the Bases Conversion and Development Authority is visiting Clark this weekend to inspect the possible future seat of government.
During his presidency, Fidel Ramos created a commission to study the relocation of the presidential palace, whose century-old location amid a warren of narrow, congested streets and an overflowing putrid river has become a traffic and security nightmare.
After Ramos briefly considered the Fort Bonifacio headquarters of the Philippine Army in Taguig City, near the Makati business district, he chose Clark, the sprawling former US air base in Pampanga province, with its world-class infrastructure and foreign investor accessibility, to be the new political seat for the 21st-century Philippines.
The renewed interest in Clark, ironically, comes in the wake of a preliminary offer of property firm Ortigas and Co. to convert possibly half of the 178-hectare the Camp Aguinaldo general headquarters of the Armed Forces, in Quezon City, which the Spanish-Filipino Ortigas family had donated for military use during the Commonwealth years, into a new Malacañang.
In return, Ortigas and Co. proposes to take back the remaining portion of Camp Aguinaldo, offering to swap a 250-plus hectare property in the Tanay area for the Logistics Command and other military uses.
Despite his oppositionist political sentiments, Ortigas president Rex Drilon II has met with Bases Conversion Development Authority president Narciso Abaya, and was trying to also see Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz, to pitch the idea.
Between Clark and Camp Aguinaldo, the military camp carries more political gravitas because of its accessibility. Symbolically, it grounds the proposed presidential palace to the People Power origins of the Edsa People Power I and Edsa II governments.
Should the swap push through, the Santolan Road side of Camp Aguinaldo could be made as wide as Katipunan Avenue on the side of the Corinthian Gardens subdivision.
One unlikely enthusiastic supporter is former Batangas provincial governor J. Antonio Leviste, the Muslim husband of oppositionist Loren Legarda.
Leviste, in a stunning Supreme Court reversal, won back the undeveloped half of the White Plains Road behind Camp Aguinaldo and has been trying for some time now to swap the property with either Camp Aguinaldo or the Quezon City government site.
THE Fidel Ramos-era plan to transfer Malacañang to Clark Field, north of Manila, has been dusted off by the Arroyo administration in the wake of continuing moves to overthrow Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
According to the grapevine, a team from the Bases Conversion and Development Authority is visiting Clark this weekend to inspect the possible future seat of government.
During his presidency, Fidel Ramos created a commission to study the relocation of the presidential palace, whose century-old location amid a warren of narrow, congested streets and an overflowing putrid river has become a traffic and security nightmare.
After Ramos briefly considered the Fort Bonifacio headquarters of the Philippine Army in Taguig City, near the Makati business district, he chose Clark, the sprawling former US air base in Pampanga province, with its world-class infrastructure and foreign investor accessibility, to be the new political seat for the 21st-century Philippines.
The renewed interest in Clark, ironically, comes in the wake of a preliminary offer of property firm Ortigas and Co. to convert possibly half of the 178-hectare the Camp Aguinaldo general headquarters of the Armed Forces, in Quezon City, which the Spanish-Filipino Ortigas family had donated for military use during the Commonwealth years, into a new Malacañang.
In return, Ortigas and Co. proposes to take back the remaining portion of Camp Aguinaldo, offering to swap a 250-plus hectare property in the Tanay area for the Logistics Command and other military uses.
Despite his oppositionist political sentiments, Ortigas president Rex Drilon II has met with Bases Conversion Development Authority president Narciso Abaya, and was trying to also see Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz, to pitch the idea.
Between Clark and Camp Aguinaldo, the military camp carries more political gravitas because of its accessibility. Symbolically, it grounds the proposed presidential palace to the People Power origins of the Edsa People Power I and Edsa II governments.
Should the swap push through, the Santolan Road side of Camp Aguinaldo could be made as wide as Katipunan Avenue on the side of the Corinthian Gardens subdivision.
One unlikely enthusiastic supporter is former Batangas provincial governor J. Antonio Leviste, the Muslim husband of oppositionist Loren Legarda.
Leviste, in a stunning Supreme Court reversal, won back the undeveloped half of the White Plains Road behind Camp Aguinaldo and has been trying for some time now to swap the property with either Camp Aguinaldo or the Quezon City government site.
posted by OlongapoCity Zambales at
8:17 AM
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